hello.. i bought a (pal) snes some months ago, but never got any picture on the tv when i powerer it up... this come in a rental-bag so it is a rental-unit.. i found out today that there is alot of modifications inside, what is this? how do i get it to work again? i guess it is some kind of protection mod. it comes with a controller plug with only a short cable sticking out. maybe this could be the "key" ?
The batteries in the second pic have a nice fur coat... The PCB is labelled KILLER so i'd guess is some anti-theft circuit. It seems to be monitoring or drawing power from the controller port board. Maybe a timer was set when the unit was rented out, and if it's not returned within a specific time, the console gets disabled. First thing i'd do is check the fuse.
your lucky all the acid went on the metal plate. If that had got on the board it would be just bin fodder. I agree with bobzee, looks like it kills the unit on a set condition. like number of power-ups or time based.
It doesn't look official for sure, only shady 3rd parties file off chip names to "protect" simple designs. Maybe it was used in those "pay to play" shops that used to be all over Asia (PAL SNES were used frequently in HK, you can tell a HK SNES by it containing a NTSC lockout chip). I guess it could decode a button combo from 2P and reset the console/hold it in reset. This way an operator or a machine (who times people) could control people's sessions. I think the reason it doesn't "work" is because you aren't giving it the required signal on the controller port which pulls the system from the reset state. If you remove the thing all should be normal again.
Looks like it turns the video off. It is wired to the led to flash telling you you need to pay the business owner more money. He probably uses some kind of macro on a controller to reset the time.
